By: Diane Benjamin

See this story from the Edgar County Watchdogs: https://tinyurl.com/Leroy-Christmas-Money

It is also illegal to hand out taxpayer dollars for Christmas presents. The story has proof Leroy did it but they are far from alone.

Using taxpayer dollars for funeral flowers isn’t companionate. It’s illegal to use government money for non-public expenses. Read the story!

Connect Transit handed out presents too. They spent $2,098.75 with Redbird catering to provide an employee feast.

Next they handed out sling backpacks – total $1192.88.

It appears employees were also able to pick a present from a catalog, this is an excerpt from a FOIA request:

In case that image is too hard to read:

“Holiday gifts have arrived! We will be printing cards and attaching them to bags to be handed out during the lunch. The anniversary award catalog is in the process of being set up with Awards Network. I just need to get email addresses for all of our recipients”

Spending other people’s money is easy. All government units need to knock it off.

McLean County has done it: https://blnnews.com/2022/12/22/county-present-to-employees/

Normal has done it MANY times: https://blnnews.com/2022/01/17/normal-is-taking-today-off-meeting-tomorrow/ & https://blnnews.com/2019/12/23/normal-giving-away-your-money-2/

Even Carlock participated: https://blnnews.com/2019/12/19/carlock-illegal-employee-christmas/

Both Bloomington and Normal have sent flowers, Normal even had an illegal policy: https://blnnews.com/2021/09/15/bloomington-proves-normals-sympathy-is-illegal/

If prosecutors existed giving away money or other presents would end.